Every city has been haunted by fires, and the Royal City was no different. Early in the morning of July 6, 1921, a major fire erupted on Upper Wyndham Street at the Robert Stewart Lumber Co. The Mercury provided a good description of the spectacular blaze: “Within fifteen minutes the whole of the mill property was a seething furnace.
The building was filled with very combustible material, while the yards adjoining were piled high with dry lumber and manufactured product, which were rapidly consumed. High into the air shot the flames, carrying sparks and shingles and red hot metal roofing hundreds of feet, and for a time there was a genuine fear that the fire would get completely out of hand.” Ruins of the Robert Stewart Lumber Company, on the west side of Wyndham street; unlabeled postcard.
Courtesy of Guelph Civic Museums, 2002.81.3.
Neighbouring buildings and businesses on the west side of Wyndham Street — including Goetz’s shoe store, Grinyer’s electrician’s shop and Smith’s furniture store — were incinerated. The gutting of Candyland was most regretted by the youth of the city. In behind, the Victoria Rink, rebuilt in 1914 after it burned down, was nearly set alight again.
The manicured lawns of the Guelph Lawn Bowling Club were singed and the kilns of were consumed by the flames while the factory itself was scorched. On Wyndham Street, the fire melted the streetcar line’s guy wires, allowing live wires to drop into the roadway, threatening to electrocut.